Monday, December 30, 2013

SACRAMENTO, CA – One-year arrest rates are down and conviction rates are virtually static for offenders released after completing their state prison sentences post-Realignment, according to a report released today by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).

“The results here are very encouraging, especially when you consider they reflect the very beginning of Realignment, when counties were in the early stages of implementing rehabilitative programs.” said CDCR Secretary Jeff Beard. “As we move forward and both CDCR and the counties utilize state funds to invest more in rehabilitation efforts, I’m confident we will see fewer former inmates re-offending.”

For this Realignment Report, CDCR indentified all offenders who had served their full sentence and were released from prison during the first year after the implementation of Realignment (October 2011 through September 2012). Researchers then tracked the offenders, which include those released to state parole supervision and those released to county probation supervision, for one year to see if they were re-arrested, convicted of a new crime, or returned to state prison. CDCR then compared those results with all offenders released during October 2010 to September 2011 (pre-Realignment) and tracked them for one year in the same manner.

• The rate of post-Realignment offenders convicted of new crimes is nearly the same as the rate of pre-Realignment offenders convicted of new crimes (20.9 percent pre-realignment and 21.0 percent post realignment).

• Post-Realignment offenders returned to prison at a significantly lower rate than pre-Realignment offenders, an intended effect of Realignment as most offenders are ineligible to return to prison on a parole violation. (32.4 percent pre-Realignment and 7.4 percent post-Realignment)

Under California’s Public Safety Realignment Act of 2011 (AB 109), no offenders receive an early release from state prison. The law, which was passed by the Legislature in response to a federal court order to reduce California’s prison population, has achieved dramatic reductions by stemming the flow of low-level inmates and parole violators into prison. The intent of Realignment is to encourage counties to develop and implement evidenced-based practices and alternatives to incarceration to limit future crimes and reduce victimization.

Prior to Realignment, more than 60,000 felon parole violators returned to state prison annually, with an average length of stay of 90 days. Beginning on October 1, 2011, most parole violations are now served in county jails. Also, offenders newly convicted of certain low-level offenses serve their time in county jail. Under another component of Realignment, inmates who have served their full state prison sentence for a non-serious, non-violent or non-sexual offense are now supervised upon their release by county probation rather than state parole.

Friday, December 20, 2013

SACRAMENTO – the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) received top honors for doing business with the California Small Business and Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise (SB/DVBE) community.Every year the Department of General Services and a team of state agencies recognize top performing SB/DVBE advocates from various state agencies for their contributions to the economy.The California small business and disabled veteran business program is an executive ordered and legislatively mandated program that requires state agencies to award contracts to California small businesses.

“I encourage small businesses to compete for awards. The team’s hard work and accomplishments are a positive reflection of the contributions CDCR makes to California’s economy.”Said CDCR Secretary Jeff Beard

Lisa Tacket, SB/DVBE advocate at Kern Valley State Prison (KVSP) was named Advocate of the Year (Gold) for her outstanding commitment to excellence, staff development, and dedication to small business contracting.During fiscal year 2012-13 the team at KVSP awarded 75 percent of their annual contracts to small businesses and 6.46 percent with disabled veteran owned businesses.KVSP received California’s distinguished Silver State Agency Recognition Award (SARA) for program excellence.

The California Institution for Men (CIM) received the Silver SARA Award for program excellence.During fiscal year 2012-13 CIM issued 94 percent of its contracting opportunities to small businesses and 13.81 percent with disabled veteran business enterprises.Linda Langley, SB/DVBE advocate at Wasco State Prison, was named Advocate of the Year (Bronze) for her effort to prioritize training with staff and for overcoming geographical challenges when contracting with local suppliers.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), Office of Peace Officer Selection (OPOS) encourages interested candidates to consider applying for a rewarding peace officer career.Peace officer positions provide an extraordinary opportunity to serve in exciting and challenging positions while directly supporting public safety for California.

Established in 1851, the CDCR is one of the largest correctional criminal justice agencies in the country with many rewarding career opportunities.Specialized peace officer positions include, Investigative Services Unit, Safety Emergency Response Team, Negotiations Management, Crisis Response Team, Gang Task Force, Fugitive Apprehension Team, Parole, and Internal Affairs.

Mostly due to retirement the CDCR plans to fill more than 7,000 peace officer vacancies over the next three years to provide ongoing support to the 34 state prisons, 42 California Conservation Camps, parole, and other special operation teams.To meet the minimum qualifications, an applicant must be 21 years of age upon graduation from the peace officer academy.Candidates must have an equivalent to a U.S. high school diploma, general education degree or higher.Applicants must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident that has applied for U.S. citizenship at the time of application.Individuals will undergo background screening, and must have no hard drug use in the last 10 years, no use of marijuana, and must be legally eligible to possess a firearm.

Cadets receive $3,050 monthly while working to complete academy training and between $3,774 - $6,389 monthly upon completion. Peace officers are eligible to receive additional monthly compensation for health and fitness, college credits, uniform, and other pay incentives.New cadets are paid a monthly salary while attending the CDCR Basic Correctional Officer Academy (BCOA). CDCR peace officers are offered very competitive health, dental, vision and retirement benefits.

The following links provide additional information about the application process.

For questions or interest to invite the CDCR, Office of Peace Officer Selections to a Northern, Central, and Southern recruitment fair, please contact the Office of Peace Officer Selections at 1(866) 232-5627 or by email to recruit@cdcr.ca.gov.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the 82nd Annual Capitol Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony will be held on Thursday, December 12th on the West Steps of the State Capitol.

This year’s tree is a 55-foot tall white fir from the Latour Demonstration State Forest located near Redding in Shasta County, the second Capitol Christmas tree to come from a state forest.

The tree will be decorated with 500 hand-crafted ornaments made by children and adults with developmental disabilities who receive services and support from the state’s development centers and 21 nonprofit regional centers.

The Governor and First Lady Anne Gust Brown will light the Capitol Christmas tree with eight-year-old Angel Valencia-Ceja, of Vallejo. It will be illuminated by approximately 10,000 ultra-low wattage LED lights.

Kitty O’Neal, of KFBK Radio, will emcee the ceremony, which will also feature performances by the California Army National Guard’s DET 1, 40th Infantry Division Band, Brass Quintet, the Governor’s Own; California Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera; students from the Oakland Military Institute and Oakland School for the Arts; and St. Paul’s Baptist Church Choir.

**NOTE: This event is open to the public and credentialed media. Members of the public are asked to RSVP and encouraged to bring non-perishable food items to donate to the California Emergency Foodlink.

Parking for satellite trucks will be available on the East side of 10th Street between L and N Streets.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

This holiday season, Police, Sheriff and CHP will be out in force cracking down on drunk drivers throughout the region with aggressive Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over enforcement.

From Friday, December 13, 2013, to Wednesday, January 1, 2014, state and local law enforcement will be watching for drunk drivers to help keep roads safe for holiday travelers.

The Avoid the 100 DUI Task Force will be aggressively looking for drunk drivers this holiday season with plans in place for sixty-six DUI/Driver’s License Checkpoints, 201 local roving DUI Saturation Patrols, several Multi-Agency Strike Teams, 14 DUI Warrant/Probation Sweeps and two DUI Court Sting targeting suspended drivers who were ordered by the judge not to drive.

**See attached Schedule of Operations for the 20 Day Mobilization for dates and city***

The Avoid the100 DUI Task Force is giving fair warning to all partygoers. “Our task force will be highly visible during this enforcement period and those suspected of driving while intoxicated will be shown zero tolerance if they are over the limit,” said Glendora Police Chief Rob Castro.

Unfortunately, the excitement and celebrations of the holiday season can lead to terrible decisions-- and serious legal consequences. Data shows that the holiday season is a particularly deadly time due to the increased number of drunk drivers on the roads.

Nationally in the five years from 2007 to 2011 there were 4,169 people killed during the month of December in crashes that involved drivers with Blood Alcohol Concentrations (BAC) of .08% or higher.

In California during those same five Decembers, 505 were killed and thousands seriously injured.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 32,367 people were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes across the nation in 2011, and 31 percent (9,878) of those fatalities occurred in drunk-driving-related crashes. Californians witnessed a total of 2,835 deaths with 774 killed in DUI crashes on their streets and highways.

“The December holiday season is the ‘most wonderful time of the year,’ and we are going to keep our roads safe for travelers heading to visit friends and family,” said Castro. “This holiday, if you choose to drive drunk, we will be looking for you, we will stop you, and you will be arrested.”

Drunk drivers often face jail time, the loss of their driver’s licenses, higher insurance rates, and dozens of other unanticipated expenses ranging from attorney fees, court costs, car towing and repairs, to lost wages due to time off from work. Even worse, a drunk driver can cause a traffic crash that claims someone’s life, or their own.

Please follow these tips to keep the holidays safe and happy:

· Even one drink can impair your judgment and increase the risk of getting arrested for driving drunk—or worse, the risk of having a crash while driving.

· If you will be drinking, do not plan on driving. Plan ahead; designate a sober driver before the party begins.

· If you have been drinking, do not drive. Call a taxi, phone a sober friend or family member, use public transportation or call one of your local sober ride home programs.

· Be responsible. If someone you know is drinking, do not let that person get behind the wheel.

· If you see an impaired driver on the road, contact law enforcement. Your actions may save someone’s life, and inaction could cost a life.

Remember, it is never safe to drink and drive: Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over.

Avoid the 100 DUI Task Force funding is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that reminds everyone: Report Drunk Drivers! Call 9-1-1.

Today the Three-Judge Court released an update regarding the meet-and-confer process. The courts agreed to extend the meet-and-confer process to January 10, 2014. As a result, the deadline to achieve the ordered reduction in population is extended accordingly, to April 18, 2014.The extension will provide additional time for the parties involved to determine next steps for California’s criminal justice reforms.The following statement was released by the CDCR.

“We are encouraged that the court has extended these deadlines and we will continue our efforts both with the court and with our partners in law enforcement and local government to build upon California’s landmark reforms to our criminal justice system.”

A federal judge in Sacramento ordered state prison officials Tuesday to continue working to improve treatment for seriously mentally ill inmates on San Quentin’s death row, but did not give inmates’ attorneys sweeping changes in the care of their clients.

*Note, CDCR does NOT determine sentencing of an offender or whether he/she is required to be placed on parole. CDCR implements California state laws on sentencing and post-release monitoring, it is not based on CDCR’s discretion.**

Richard Tuite, the man convicted of killing 12-year-old Stephanie Crowe, then found not guilty in a retrial last week, is still behind bars but had another day in court on Tuesday.CALIFORNIA PRISONS

California, the most populous state in the US, holds some inmates of its overcrowded prisons in isolation for years, even decades. While officials defend the use of the "security housing units", inmates and their lawyers say they turn their occupants mad.

Two years ago, under intense pressure from federal judges to reduce overcrowding in state prisons, Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature enacted “realignment,” diverting low-level felons into local jails, supervision and, it was hoped, rehabilitation.CDCR RELATED

An effort to bring back a functioning death sentence for certain capitol crimes may find its way on next November’s ballot. Law enforcement officials around the state are considering supporting a ballot initiative to streamline death sentence appeals and find an execution method acceptable to the courts.

In May, CityBeat associate editor Kelly Davis wrote about Robin Reid, a woman with terminal cancer who’d been sentenced to four years in jail on charges stemming from her erotic-massage business. Reid had been granted a “special” sentence by the District Attorney’s office: She was jailed Mondays through Wednesdays and allowed to leave Thursday mornings to receive chemotherapy.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), Office of Peace Officer Selection (OPOS) encourages interested candidates to consider applying for a rewarding peace officer career.Peace officer positions provide an extraordinary opportunity to serve in exciting and challenging positions while directly supporting public safety for California.

Established in 1851, the CDCR is one of the largest correctional criminal justice agencies in the country with many rewarding career opportunities.Specialized peace officer positions include, Investigative Services Unit, Safety Emergency Response Team, Negotiations Management, Crisis Response Team, Gang Task Force, Fugitive Apprehension Team, Parole, and Internal Affairs.

Mostly due to retirement the CDCR plans to fill more than 7,000 peace officer vacancies over the next three years to provide ongoing support to the 34 state prisons, 42 California Conservation Camps, parole, and other special operation teams.To meet the minimum qualifications, an applicant must be 21 years of age upon graduation from the peace officer academy.Candidates must have an equivalent to a U.S. high school diploma, general education degree or higher.Applicants must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident that has applied for U.S. citizenship at the time of application.Individuals will undergo background screening, and must have no hard drug use in the last 10 years, no use of marijuana, and must be legally eligible to possess a firearm.

Cadets receive $3,050 monthly while working to complete academy training and between $3,774 - $6,389 monthly upon completion. Peace officers are eligible to receive additional monthly compensation for health and fitness, college credits, uniform, and other pay incentives.A peace officer career includes excellent benefits for retirement, health, dental, and vision.

Regional Contact Information:

For questions or interest to invite the CDCR, Office of Peace Officer Selections to a Northern, Central, and Southern recruitment faire, please contact the Office of Peace Officer Selections at 1(866) 232-5627 or by email to recruit@cdcr.ca.gov.

The following links provide additional information about the application process.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) along with the Sesame Workshop have partnered to help support young children process the array of emotions when a life-changing circumstance occurs and a parent becomes incarcerated.

The CDCR is one of ten Departments selected within the United States to pilot the initiative and will help support families by making available parent education toolkits during family visits.Nationally, the number of children with an incarcerated parent has increased nearly 80% in the past 20 years with nearly 2.7 million children affected by an incarcerated parent.

Sesame Workshop is working with advisors and partners to distribute and integrate Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration resources into organizations that specialize in early childhood education, mental health and counseling, parenting programs, foster care, and community partners that have a mission specific to helping families cope with the incarceration of a loved one.Participating states that will pilot a deeper implementation of the resources includes Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

The Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration Initiative provides children with the tools and information to express emotions.For parents or caregivers the toolkit includes resources to work through and foster age-appropriate positive communication about the impacts of incarceration.

The initiative is designed to address some of the most difficult emotions children experience when a family member is incarcerated.The program helps to foster much needed support, comfort, and aims to reduce anxiety, sadness, and the confusion that children age 3-8 may experience when a parent is incarcerated.

With an understanding that parents, as well as, caregivers require strategies, tips and educational resources, this initiative will help break down communication barriers while providing helpful tools that will help children communicate using simple parenting tips to lead effective communication related to incarceration.

Little Children, Big Challenges is designed to:

·Support, comfort, and reduce anxiety, sadness, and confusion that young children experience during the incarceration of a parent

·Provide at-home caregivers with strategies, tips, and age-appropriate language they can use to help communicate with their children about incarceration

·Inform incarcerated parents themselves that they can parent from anywhere, and provide them with the simple parents tips highlighting the importance of communication

“Sesame Workshop has always been at the forefront of creating resources for families with young children to help address some of life’s most difficult issues,” said Dr. Jeanette Betancourt, Senior Vice President for Outreach and Educational Practices at Sesame Workshop. “Little Children, Big Challenge: Incarceration tackles a very difficult topic, one for which there are scant resources to help young children, and best of all, it approaches these difficult transitions in the way that only Sesame Street and our trusted Muppets can.”

To request a parent education toolkit or for additional information about the Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration Initiative, please call Albert Rivas at (916) 324-6508 or by email at cal_externalaffairs@cdcr.ca.gov